The paper discusses the survival of racialist ideas in theories about dog breeding in post-World War Two United States. Its main focus is the notion that dogs of the same breed share similar mental traits and that these traits are hereditary. This notion had its roots in the 19th century, when dog breeding was heavily influenced by racial science. According to race theories, the character of individuals is a derivative of their racial affiliation. However, when racial science was discredited after the Second World War especially this idea of the racial basis of character came under attack. Postwar dog breeding did not exhibit an analogous questioning of the idea of breed-specific mentalities. On the contrary: in the decades following the war this idea became ever more powerful. That had to do with the fact that after the war dogs started to be identified more strongly than before with middle class family life and were increasingly regarded as family members. In this context, one of the most intensely discussed questions about dogs in postwar America was what breeds possessed a character that was best suited to life in the company of children. On the other hand, postwar suburbanization also generated an increased interest in watchdogs, which in turn raised the popularity of breeds reputed for their aggressiveness, like the German Shepherd and the Doberman Pinscher. The paper’s conclusion will connect the historical development of such breed stereotypes to present-day controversies around the stigmatization of certain breeds as innately violent (“breedism”).
